


J'onn J'onzz Is No Tatiana Maslany (Or: Don't Lie To Your Boss)

by Jayne L (JayneL)



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-01-17
Packaged: 2018-05-14 11:19:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5741779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayneL/pseuds/Jayne%20L
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt by clari-clyde: "Cat Grant still knows."</p>
            </blockquote>





	J'onn J'onzz Is No Tatiana Maslany (Or: Don't Lie To Your Boss)

"Close your mouth, Kira, you look like the Tsukiji fish market." Kara continues to gape, round-eyed behind her silly, useless glasses. Cat leans back in her desk chair, arching her brow. "Oh, honestly. We live in a world where, according to reliable sources, LexCorp, Dyad, and the organisation formerly known as SHIELD have all independently perfected human cloning, and Central City has been overrun with doppelgangers from an alternate dimension."

Kara blinks, finally. "Oh my god. Who are your sources?"

She sounds genuinely intrigued. A good indicator of the quality of Kara Danvers' investigative instincts, Cat thinks, if rather worrisome regarding the D.E.O.'s grasp on Earth-based extra-normal activities. "My sources are not the issue at hand, and even if they were, you know my stance on confidentiality. Now. Was the Supergirl you shook hands with in this office a product of cloning?"

Kara, who had been shifting uneasily in her practical flats, stills like a deer hearing a branch snap in the distance. "No."

"Did she come from an alternate dimension?"

Kara's shoulders rise another inch closer to her ears. "No."

"Hmm." Honest answers both times. Not without effort, Cat shelves her newly-piqued curiosity. "But that's only two possibilities ruled out. Given those precedents, how many other amazing, bizarre--and, crucially, _viable_ \--explanations for the existence of an ersatz, yet convincing, Supergirl must there be?"

Kara slumps, dismayed. "If she was convincing, how did you know she wasn't really Supergirl?"

"I dislike using sentences that begin with, 'In my line of work'--" Cat suppresses the urge to smirk. She loves reminding people of her profession, indirectly or otherwise. It reaffirms her achievements for everyone in the conversation. "--but: in my line of work, if you can't learn to spot disingenuousness, you don't succeed. Well, you don't succeed on my level. You end up working for _TMZ_ , or publications whose Photoshop errors make it all the way to print." She dismisses that career trajectory with a shudder, then levels Kara with a look. "Occam's Razor, Kira. Before you worked yourself into a lather of attempted denial and obfuscation, we had established that you were Supergirl, and Supergirl is an alien who can fly and shoot lasers from her eyes. Maybe temporary whole-body duplication is just a less-publicized Kryptonian talent."

If she guessed correctly, Kara doesn't admit it. Instead, she moves closer, her hands coming up to wring together beseechingly. "Please don't fire me, Miss Grant. Please. I know you have concerns about my work here distracting me from helping people, but it doesn't. It won't. I promise, please. I need this job."

Her anxious desperation is palpable. Keeping a tight rein on her sympathy--and her expression--Cat says coolly, "You made that clear when you resorted to enlisting a Supergirl impersonator in your attempts to gaslight me. Now, rather than work up another lather, just tell me why."

Kara stares at her. Cat stares calmly back. She can practically see the internal agony that Kara puts into constructing her argument. "I love Supergirl," she begins finally, earnest in every syllable, every pore, every cell. "I love being Supergirl. The day I caught that plane and stood under that spotlight and let the whole world know I exist was one of the best, most exhilarating moments of my life. I cherish every opportunity I've had to help people since." Suddenly uncertain, she hesitates, glancing down. After a moment, she takes off her glasses. When she looks up again, it's Supergirl who meets Cat's gaze. Resolved. "But Supergirl isn't all of me. I'm Kara, too. I need my life to have room for Kara, too, and this job...this is where Kara fits in." A small, hopeful smile--purely Kara--lifts the corners of her mouth. "This is where I _fit_."

Cat breathes out. She taps one finger on her desktop. She sees Kara's gaze dart to the movement, and feels acutely that she has her finger on a trigger. "You say that as if you think I don't understand the importance of living a life in balance," she says evenly. When Kara looks up again, her expression guarded, Cat affects a careless shrug. "Why do you think I let you believe your little fiction was successful? Work and home, demand and recoup, public and--well, less-public. Personal. No one can be all one thing. I suppose, at the end of the day, even Supergirl needs to take off the cape." The naked relief that washes through Kara's entire body is too much. Cat deliberately bites her consonants as she continues, "That said, I have to say that I really don't care for the idea of you thinking of your duties here as, what, undemanding? A respite?"

If they weren't having a moment, Cat would smile at the way Kara's eyes widen, the way she fumbles as she shoves her glasses back onto her face. "I would never, Miss Grant."

"Good. Because I need the tentative index for next month's _CatCo Magazine_ , the layout for the architectural insert going into this Saturday's _Tribune_ , and an iced vanilla-raspberry latte with two orange biscotti on the side."

"Of course, Miss Grant."

"And get someone's cat out of a tree or something on your way to or from the coffee shop. Like every other skill, multitasking needs to be practised to be maintained."

"Yes, Miss Grant."

She doesn't let herself laugh until Kara is in the elevator and three floors down.

She chooses to believe she goes unheard.

**Author's Note:**

> Spot the minor crossovers! (Orphan Black, Agents of SHIELD, and The Flash.)


End file.
